It happens at multiple levels. Part of it is the clarity around the pieces. In general terms, as it relates to the human health impacts of food, it's Health Canada, in terms of the guidelines, standards, etc., working very closely. CFIA manages the farm to the store, or the distributor kind of thing. For us it's the overall engagement around prevention, but also, when there are outbreaks or human health concerns, making sure there's a public health perspective to that.
What supports that are a number of committees at different levels, as well as day-to-day ongoing collaboration and consultation, discussion, to make sure we are taking into concern--so CFIA and agriculture--human health issues and are considering how the system works, so that we have an understanding of it and so that it moves as seamlessly as possible. So clarity in roles has been very helpful and is very important.
As I mentioned, there is a deputy ministers committee that meets regularly that I'm part of. It looks at the overall work plan to ensure we're making progress on each of the items. There are also ADM and DG committees that support that work, and then those who are actually doing the work themselves. So we meet regularly to go over where we are, what we have accomplished, what we still need to do, what other issues we're facing, etc.
It's a huge collaboration, but I must say it's very effective and useful. Generally, having been in public health now for too many decades, it really is gratifying to see the level of collaboration across departments federally, but also with other jurisdictions in terms of the desire, the willingness, the interest, and the capacity to work together to solve these problems. None of us owns them alone, and all of us are necessary to create the solutions.
I've never seen anything as good as this. There's still a lot we can learn, but I'm quite gratified.